The first part of this dissertation gives an overview of the social and cultural context in The United States of America in the post-World War II era – the place and time of the first appearance of The Beat Generation and their literature. The Beat Generation had an enormous influence in the USA all the way until 1960s, intertwining with popular music and culture in general, creating a distinctive literature phenomena. This dissertation shows literary and philosophical influence which served as a foundation ground for the development of The Beat Generation's ideas and literature expression. Taking into special consideration the accusations which describe the Beat literature texts as unintelligent work and that they are not true representatives of the American literary tradition, this dissertation tries to portray a variety of their role models and ideals, a source of their inspiration after a deep contemplation of classical literature and philosophical pieces. The Beat Generation authors also tried to enrich their knowledge through personal in-depth discussion with their role models, such as Kenneth Rexroth and Williams Carlos Williams.
The list of the Beat Generation role models and theoretical foundations is quite impressive and it consists of legacies and experiences taken over from many different sources, such as the writers of the more radical wing of the Lost Generation – Hart Crane, Harry Crosby and Eugene Jolas. They were antecedents of the Beat Generation, inspiring them with their excessive use of narcotics, strong tendency for sexual and radical literary experimentation and aspirations for revival of extreme experiences and the need for social rebellion, all which the Beat Generation authors followed and upgraded with an extreme interest for metaphysical questions. Further on, their role models were transcendentalists such as Thoreau, Whitman, Emerson, Melville – they inspired them to celebrate their individualism and personal experience; phenomena of hipsters and jazz; existentialists and their need to question and provoke current social structure and the passionate need to live in the moment; Oswald Spengler and his The Decline of the West served as a framework for development of their beliefs; bohemianism and anarchism – because the Beats are the followers of Bohemians and their communities from the past; Charles Olson and his projective verse and theorists of The Black Mountain College, e.g. Duncan and Creely with their fondness for experiential poetry and no need for form. The Beats softened their gloomy analysis using wit, humor and jazz. William Carlos Williams had a role of teacher and mentor for Ginsberg, using a prose base in his work; by doing so he created a true inspiration for Ginsberg. Wilhelm Reich was an inspiration for the Beats with his sexual discourse – he portrays a sexual intercourse as a spontaneous, instinctive body act that sets free from all the ideological inhibitions; Paul Goodman inspired the Beats with his idea of sabotaging the American principle of the middle class. Surrealism enabled Ginsberg to widen the capacity of his unconscious mind. Surrealism also inspired the Beat Generation to use the act of surreal association. To conclude, William Blake was a central figure for Allen Ginsberg in a peculiar, visionary way.
After the analysis of the role models and theoretical foundations, the basic characteristics of the Beat Generation poetry are introduced and compared to the other forms of art. Seven most important representatives of the Beats are included in the research. The intention was to analyze their key pieces and confirm that the Beat Generation corpus contains recognizable and repetitive characteristics, although there is no official program or manifest for the Beat Generation literature. The main characteristics of their literature and philosophy started to define itself with discussion about a new vision and a new consciousness, which created a path to corporeality and new spirituality. By doing so, their literature started making a path towards extensive restoration, balance and transcendence, with a central pursuit for identity and clear vision.
The four major elements of the Beat movement are isolated: Kerouac's essay "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose" with techniques of sketching and stream of consciousness; corporeality and sexuality as an indicator of affiliation to early postmodernism; performance poetry which emphasizes the importance of performance and oral improvisation. Ginsberg interest for vocalization eventually led to an inspiration, so performance in the Beat movement became an essential part of the poetry form no longer kept in the written form, therefore, only those who took part in the performance area had the privilege to completely realize their poetry. The Beat readings overcame regular performances and became true showcasing of their essence, breaking the imaginary wall between the audience and the performers. Lastly, there is also the esthetics of spirituality – ambivalent relationships with organized religions as a fourth characteristic of the Beat Generation. The Beats searched for religious meanings in the least obvious places, also trying to give new meanings to religion and emphasizing their radical ecumenism. Dharma poetry, as a part of Buddhist psychology and philosophy, is an important factor of their religious vision. Also, their spiritual, almost religious understanding of nature is extremely significant. Cultural and religious traditions were often combined with science; the Beats played one of the key roles in the development of ecology as a science field up to the level in which it almost became an art field.
Through detailed analysis of the chosen literary work and accomplishments of the main representatives of the Beat Movement, essential issues of the poetry are additionally elaborated, while conclusions are confirmed with concrete examples.
Characteristics of the Beat literature inspired South Slavic authors, although the Beat reception was not systematically studied and researched in any of the South Slavic literatures. The second part of this dissertation tries to determine the ways the Beat literature penetrated Croatian and other South Slavic literatures. To shed the light on those pathways, this dissertation tries to interpret literary pieces and apply a method of complex research of influence and connection of the Beat Generation authors with ex-Yugoslavian authors, with a detailed overview of the journey undertaken by the Beat authors to ex-Yugoslavia and vice versa. It determines that certain structural specificities of American texts penetrated through their originals to Croatian and other South Slavic literatures and cultures. The social and cultural context of the time is taken into consideration. By the end of the 1950s, the first West-oriented authors appeared, such as Šoljan and Slamnig, predecessors of the first concrete examples of the Beat literature in these areas.
In the four subchapters about the reception of the Beat literature it is shown how the Beat literature began to appear as an inter-text scattered in the symbols of penetration of Western culture, music and literature. This level of reception is displayed through examples of intertextual relations of Šoljan's Traitors and novel Short Trip with Kerouac's novel On the Road, but also through examples of Alojz Majetić's poetry, often similar to Snyder's deep respect for the connection of the nature and man.
Youth press and music present a special pathway of the Beat reception through newly liberalized youth rock culture. "Places for Beat Poets", a series of texts by Vojo Šindolić, published in magazine Džuboks (1977 to 1978), show traces of awareness of textual relations of the Beats and South Slavic poets, such as Arsen Dedić.
Rock music is as well, in its new wave direction, on the margins of society, realizing its potential from the underground, which is completely in accordance with the Beat characteristics. The Beats were also present in song lyrics; for example, Branimir Johnny Štulić calls them out in his song "Lombardy Poplar". The second subchapter gives an overview of the classic reception through translations and critic reviews, while the third subchapter deals with reception through exchange of experiences in the journeys of the Beat authors to ex-Yugoslavian countries. Here two slightly forgotten South Slavic authors, whose expression is the most similar to the Beats – Milan Oklopdžić and Vojo Šindolić are introduced, dubbed to be Ginsberg and Kerouc of the South Slavic area.
Detailed overview of the connection of other authors from the South Slavic area with the Beat Generation is portrayed in the fourth, last subchapter. Common sensibility and worldview similarities are visible in the certain creative stages of Vojislav Despotov's work such as his „howl blown into a balloon“ and jazz poetry of Ten Decagrams of Soul; Vladimir Kopicl; extremely subversive authors Tomaž Šalamun and Boris Maruna; Nina Živančević with her performance poetry; Edo Popović, Delimir Rešicki and Zvonko Karanović and members of FAK, which brought back oral recital and performance. Fragments of the Beat aesthetics can be traced to works of Milko Valent, Saša Meršinjak, Goran Babić in Croatia; Srđan Valjarević, Željko Mitić and Ivana Milankov in Serbia; Franci Zagorčnik, Mart Ogen, Miho Avanz and Veno Taufer in Slovenia. Lastly, in poetry of some authors of younger generations, such as Vladimir Đurišić, Andrija Ivanović and Mehmed Begić, with visible newly discovered actuality of the Beats.